we are looking at unprecedented cuts in spending on national security. we are looking at the prospect of drawing down from afghanistan. we are looking at a lot of changes. not just here in the united states, but in the world. one of the questions i know that we have is whether we are ready for the exchanges. i suspect that most of us believe we are not. tom, make -- maybe you could start as out and talk about the sequestration that paul ryan told us this weekend is going to happen. >> it is a prediction that at this point seems like a certainty, but i would argue it has been a near certainty once beat sequestration provision was written into the budget control act. i will talk a bit about sequestration per se, but i would regard it as a symptom and not the disease itself. the disease itself is erosion to the point of vanishing, almost, of the bipartisan political consensus for military string, for peace through strength, as people used to say. that is really something that over the course of my career has been a touchstone, something that people could bu